


Tainted Perfection

by HyperKey



Series: Tainted [2]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: AU, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-14 13:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11784303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKey/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: Sunny and Wolf face a situation they weren't prepared for. It is bigger than it seemed and more dangerous than they had thought.Prequel to Tainted Souls





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> MGR AU. Set Before during and after the events of Tainted Souls.
> 
> Rewrite. I absolutely hated the previous version, so here have it new and improved.
> 
>  
> 
> I LOVE, ABSOLUTELY LOVE comments. Even if it's just "I liked it", it means the world to me. Hope you'll like it, and have fun reading!

Sunny stared at her white tea cup, swirls of blue flowers carefully painted on to it. It almost made her smile, nobody could have known that the color of the flowers held meaning to her. What would Naomi think about it? That she was holding on to something so simple, something to meaningless.

The artificial beauty of a blue rose.

Maybe because it fit into her life of artificial happiness and forced compromises. What kind of woman would she have become if she had not been taken from her mother?

These days, thinking about Olga hit her harder than ever before. She had never known her mother, never spoke a word to her directly. But she had spoken to her a lot. During hard times, when she didn’t know what to do. She had spoken to her Photograph more than she had to Hal in the past years.

Ever since she quit her job at Solis and moved out of Colorado, things had changed a lot. She wasn’t sure if she liked the change or not, but it was definitely different. With a deep sigh she looked out the window, watched the rain drops stick to it and slowly slide down to join the puddles on the ground.

Going to this café on this day was becoming tradition. An autumn day in November, somewhere in Ohio. She had been living here for almost two years, but had not made any friends or acquaintances. She worked as a freelancing engineer, but that was mostly to distract herself from things that would creep up on her if she didn’t.

It wasn’t that she had money issues.

With a deep sigh she stirred her black tea, moved a strand of hair behind her ear before she rested her head on her hand and sipped the hot beverage. What would have happened if Olga had lived? Would she do what she was doing now? Would she have ever met Snake and Hal? Honoring her mother in this kind of way seemed a little strange to her, but there was absolutely nothing she knew about this woman, except for what Snake, Hal and Raiden had told her.

She burned her tongue when she got distracted, and quickly set the cup down again. She felt like she deserved it for thinking about these people without preparing for it.

Hal was still doing what he always did. Helped people, built things. Sunny knew she should call him more.

Snake was long gone. It still pained her to think about him, although not as much as it used to. She let her hand sink under the seat, where everyone else was seeing a fluffy black dog, Sunny however, felt the metal plating hidden under the hologram that was projected around the canine shaped exoskeleton.

Wolf was the only being that she felt close to these days. Having him disguised as a real dog had become necessary when he expressed the wish to be beside her even when she wasn’t home. Sunny wasn’t sure if he just wanted to keep an eye on her, or if he wanted to protect her, but she appreciated his company. Especially at days like these, where things just seemed depressing in itself.

A sudden shadow casted over her startled her so much, she jumped slightly. It was one of the waiters that had watched her for a while now. The name tag identified him as B. Williams. Sunny didn’t know him, but was surprised when he scooted a chair over and sat down on it.

“You look kinda lonely, young lady.” He commented with a smile.

Wolf stirred and Sunny kicked him lightly. It was best to not make a commotion here. “I am quite fine, thank you.” She replied a little too fast. This was probably the worst day to bother her with human interaction. While she didn’t mind it too much on any other day, she always kept her distance.

“Can I recommend you anything? We just got this great cheesecake-“

Sunny politely adjusted her cup and sat up straight. She wasn’t very tall, knew she would never be, but she was determined to hold her ground especially when a random waiter tried to flirt with her this obviously.

“Thank you, but I just wanted to finish this cup of tea. On my own.”

“Alright then.” He replied politely and stood. “Enjoy your tea.”

Sunny barely managed to keep Wolf from yapping at his shoes and dove half under the table to give him a lecture.

“Stop doing that!” She hissed silently. “If you act like that every time someone talks to me, I need to leave you home!”

As expected, Wolf chose not to reply and fooled everyone in earshot to think that he was truly what he appeared to be. Just a dog.

A second later Sunny had a message on her phone.

‘He clearly had ill intentions.’

“No he had not.” Sunny hissed towards the phone. “You’re just way to paranoid because the last two guys where shit.”

‘I was only stating the obvious.’

“You’re just jealous.” Sunny hissed, put the phone into her purse with more force than necessary and finished her tea. It was still slightly too hot but she couldn’t care less. Almost angry she got up, took her cup to the counter, and was pleasantly surprised when the man from before took it with a smile.

She left the café silently after she had put on her jacket and sighed at the pouring rain. She opened the blue umbrella; a relic she had gotten from John ages ago. She was still surprised it was still holding together after so many years.

Wolf remained silent during the walk through the streets, but stayed close to her, almost as if protecting her. The leash attached to him was nothing more than a prop. It wasn’t necessary at all, but fooled people. Anything to keep them from asking questions.

A hand on her shoulder made her turn around swiftly, again she looked into the face of the waiter. His dark hair and light colored eyes looked out of place, he was drenched even though Sunny wasn’t far away from the café yet.

“You forgot this-“ The man told her, held out a neatly packaged carton, obviously with cake inside.

“I didn’t buy this.“ Sunny defended herself.

“I was going to give it to you, because you looked so sad-“

Sunny involuntarily chewed on her lip at the kind gesture. She had not expected that. “Th-thank you.” The situation was becoming awkward and she almost dropped the carton when she took it.

“Hope you’ll be coming back some time, I’m Brandon by the way.”

Sunny was confused. The man was obviously hitting on her, but why? “S-Sunny-“ She quickly told him. “I have to get going- the dog…”

Brandon nodded, “Wet dogs stink. I get ya. Have a nice day!” With that he turned around and rushed back to the café.

Sunny stood there for several seconds until Wolf made use of the leash to pull her along. While she kept the package safe from the rain she rummaged in her purse for her phone and almost chuckled at the messages Wolf had sent to her phone.

‘DO NOT ACCEPT THIS!’  
‘He is obviously trying to get you in bed!’  
‘Do not smile at him!’

She shook her head with an amused smile. “When did you become so jealous, huh? Can’t stand someone stealing your favorite girl away?”

‘You know this is not true.’ Appeared on her phone.

“Or are you secretly enjoying the role of playing a dog?”

Wolf stopped short and Sunny almost stumbled.

A few people turned their head when Wolf suddenly spoke aloud, “Do not say this ever again.” Sunny was surprised that he actually voiced his reply and sighed.

“Fine. Then stop acting like you’re my guardian. I’m twenty one, and you’re thirteen. You’re not even legal yet!”

“Thirteen is rather old for a dog.” Wolf shot back and Sunny couldn’t help but hear a smirk in his voice.

She decided not to reply and made her way home. The rest of the walk was spent in a silence Sunny found uncomfortable. It wasn’t awkward, but something about it felt unusual.

Sunny passed through the automatic gate and walked up to the front door. The house was nothing more than a concrete block, but it came cheap and was quite big. It also had a pool, but she had never used it. The tarp she had placed onto it when she moved in was still in place, and she doubted she would ever use it.

Once she closed the door, she watched Wolf deactivate the hologram as he headed into the small open space she had declared the living room. It wasn’t more than a couch and a few cushions surrounding a tiny coffee table. She had put great care into choosing potted plants to decorate the small area.

Sunny took off her shoes and jacket, put her umbrella into the sink in the kitchen to avoid getting everything wet and turned to look at Wolf who was already lying down on a towel and looked utterly bored. He was reading through a scientific review on A.I’s Sunny had turned up a few days ago. She wasn’t sure why he was so interested in it, but she let him. Sometimes she thought he was lonely. There was no way to tell for sure, but at times he wouldn’t leave her out of sight for hours, or was disappointed when she left without him. Was he just getting old? More mature? Could Ai’s even age?

She turned to her small work area and looked at her laptops- it was a bad habit of hers to never turn them off. An icon on the side told her that there was an e-mail waiting to be read. She quickly settled down on the chair and opened it, surprised at who had sent it.

“John…” She chuckled. It had been a while since they had spoken to each other.

“Wolf, John’s asking how you are-“ Sunny said as she read through the rather short mail. He gave her a quick rundown of how things were going at college and that he needed her help for a project.

“Functional.” The AI replied almost instantly.

“Thought so…” Sunny muttered to herself. “He needs an AI for a school project-“

“I will not play guinea pig for a bunch of school kids.” Wolf sounded irritated.

“Not you.” Sunny sighed. “He needs one from scratch, a simple one.”

“Define simple.” Wolf rumbled as he got up and walked over to Sunny to look at the mail.

“Okay not that simple. Look at this,” Sunny pointed at the screen, “He said he needs a ‘self-aware’ AI.”

Once the words left her mouth, both of them stared at each other in disbelief. “How easy does he think this is?”

Wolf shook his head. “I may be an AI. I, however, have no knowledge on how to build one.”

“Figured…” Sunny leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “And all I know is how to destroy them-“

She lifted an eyebrow when Wolf inched away, subtly, almost in a mocking matter, but Sunny wasn’t sure if he really wanted to tease her or if her words had made him uncomfortable. “As long as you don’t go rogue I wouldn’t even consider anything remotely close to shutting you down.” She added.

Wolf needed a moment to reply, Sunny was surprised. Her friend was very aware of what she had done to the patriot’s AI, why was he acting like that now?

“But if I were to turn on you, or anyone else, you would?”

 “We both know that you won’t. You don’t have it in you.”

“You avoided the question.” Wolf insisted. “Would you shut me down, if I were a threat?”

Sunny sighed, untangled her crossed arms and placed a hand on her friend’s head. “If you end up harming people without reason, yes. But I know you won’t.”

Silence settled over them, Wolf didn’t reply nor move for several minutes. Sunny stared at him, knowing whatever he was going to say next would have some impact.

“How will I know that you will not shut me down when you get tired of my presence?”He asked her then. He sounded hurt, almost insecure.

Sunny turned towards him, slid off her chair and crouched down. She rested both hands on the sides of his head and gazed at the read beams that represented his visual input. “I could have shut you down at any point in those ten years… Wanna hear the reason why I didn’t?”

“Yes.”

Sunny smiled sadly, ran a thumb over the metal plating that covered the exoskeleton of her friend. He could not sense this, but it calmed her. “Because you’re my friend. And it’s wrong to take a person’s life… It would be murder, Wolf… Why should I murder my best friend?”

Once again silence settled over them, slowly Wolf let his head sink, almost looked defeated. “I am not a person, Sunny. However, I am grateful that you think of me as a friend.”

Sunny wrapped her arms around the canine exoskeleton, held it tightly. “You’re as much of a person as everyone else is. So what if your brain is a chip, you have a soul… and that alone makes you into a person.”

“There is no scientific evidence that souls exist-“

“I think they do.” Sunny insisted. “And you’re different from the Patriot’s AI.” She moved away to look at his visual sensors, gave him a stern glare. “You have morals, you can be irrational- _sometimes_ … and you _have_ feelings.”

“I cannot experience human emotion-“

She shook him lightly to get her point across. “You have your own set of emotion. And some of those are very close to human emotions. And you’re a sarcastic little asshole sometimes. And that’s why I could never shut you down… probably not even if you harm someone…” She bit back tears, took a deep breath to suppress them. “I’ve lost too many people, Wolf… I can’t stand to lose you too.”

Sunny flinched when Wolf’s tail lightly flicked her forehead. “We agreed on not bringing it up.” He reminded her. “It is still difficult for both of us to accept the fact that Raiden is not there anymore.”

“You’re right.” She hastily wiped away her tears and got back up to sit in her chair again. She sniffed a few times, then took a deep breath and opened the rest of the mails she had gotten. “Hey, can you get me the cake?” She muttered while she was reading through an inquiry of some business.

“Please, and thank you.” Wolf grumbled as he walked back to the living room to get the requested package. Once he had retrieved it, he placed it on the desk and curled up on the floor. “Thanks.” Sunny mumbled while she chewed on the end of a pencil.

“You should stop that.”

Sunny sighed once more, but made no move to put the pencil down as she typed her reply, then went to the next e-mail.

“Wilhelm Voigt.” She read aloud. “That’s unusual… Did you talk to him?”

“I had no reason to contact him.”

“Really? No broken parts? Something you didn’t tell me, _again_?”

“Really.” Wolf replied drily. “I am fully functional.”

“I told you I’m going to take you apart bit by bit if you break down one more time because of something you didn’t tell me.”

“I am aware of the threat.”

Sunny arched an eyebrow and opened the mail, read through the usual greeting to get to the point of it. “Oh, he wants us to test something for him.”

“Us?” Wolf echoed in surprise and sat up, bumped his head into the glass surface of Sunny’s desk and left yet another scratch.

Sunny had stopped complaining about that long ago. “Yup. He has this prototype that needs testing. Already sent it to us.”

“What kind of prototype?”

“Dunno. Didn’t say. Precaution maybe.”

“It most likely involves me.”

Sunny chuckled. “Why do you think that?”

“It has always involved me when he sent a prototype.”

Sunny grinned at him and remembered the last time they tested a prototype for Doktor. “Let’s hope it’s not a kid’s toy again.”

“You enjoyed that way more than I did.”

“Because it was funny to see you running around in this tiny puppy form. You’re huge, you bump into everything and I keep tripping over your tail, it was a nice change.”

“Would you prefer it if I was smaller?”

“That’s not what I said.” Sunny hung her shoulders and shook her head. She then stood and walked around the counter behind her with the packaged cake in one hand. “I gotta think up a solution to John’s problem…”

“I know an Ai nobody wants.” Wolf remarked with a lowered voice, almost a whisper.

Sunny saw his head turn towards a dark panel embedded in the wall next to the fridge.

“Hey, I like it.” Sunny protested. “It fills the bathtub when I want it to, it keeps the house nicely warm and It can heat up food and close the blinds… and-“

“It is not self aware.”

“That would be terrifying.”

“How so?”

“It could watch us sleep.”

Wolf shook his head and walked back to the living room.

Sunny got a plate and carefully put the cake slices onto it. “Besides,” She said as she ripped the package apart and was about to put it in the trash can when she saw a cell-phone number scribbled on the inside. She quickly memorized it and moved her attention back to Wolf, “Why would you give away the House-AI?” She turned to the sink to wash her hands, then took the plate and walked over to Wolf and plopped down onto the couch.

“I do not like it.” Wolf replied silently while Sunny poked the strawberry cake with a fork and tried a bite. She ignored his remark and enjoyed the cake and the view to the small terrace with all the potted plants outside. The rain took care of watering them, so she didn’t need to worry about that.

Halfway into the first slice Sunny began to ponder about the guy who gave them to her and his number. “You think I should go back to that café? Maybe talk to the guy a bit more?” Alternatively she could have called him, but she didn’t want to appear desperate.

Wolf didn’t reply right away, involuntarily told Sunny that he was displeased at her question. “I do not approve, but I have no say in the matter. You have always done as you wanted.”

Sunny set the cake aside and untangled one of the blankets on the couch to wrap herself into, then patted the empty space beside her. Almost instantly Wolf hopped onto the couch and curled up next to her.

She leaned against him and reached towards the table to get the plate back. “If you do end up in a serious relationship, would that change ours?” Wolf then asked.

Sunny froze at the question, was taken by surprise. “Why would that change it?”

“At some point they will learn that I am not what I appear to be.” Wolf told her. “While cyborgs are generally accepted nowadays, people are still wary of AI’s.”

Sunny shook her head. “I’m not planning to get rid of you.” She told him as she finally grabbed the plate again and settled it on her lap. “No one has the right to get rid of you.” She put her free hand onto Wolf’s head and smiled as some of his tension seemed to dissipate.

“If they have a problem with my best friend, they have no right to be here.” Sunny declared firmly and attacked the slice of cake.

“Thank you, Sunny.”

The young woman smiled at the AI, and threw one of the pillows at him. “What’s up with you today?”

“Nothing.” Wolf muttered and silence followed. Sunny gave up on waiting for an answer when she had finished both slices of cake.

Eventually Sunny went upstairs to find a solution to John’s issue and barely even noticed she was falling asleep until she woke up the next morning. She noticed a woolen blanket over her shoulders and Wolf at her feet. He seemed to have powered down, so she didn’t bother talking to him when she silently got up from her chair and brought the blanket back to the living room. Her neck was rather stiff from the unusual position to sleep in, although she slept at her desk often enough.

Yawning she went to the kitchen and filled a glass with water while she stared out of the window. It was still raining and the backyard was flooded. At days like this she was glad that the house had no basement. It would have gotten flooded multiple times.

She was about to walk over to her laptops that had all been shut down, when the doorbell rang. Changing plans she hurried over to the panel next to the door and turned on the camera. There was a rather huge package to be seen, and a guy obviously delivering it. Had she forgotten about an order yet again? Or had it been Wolf who ordered something? Other than replacement parts he had never bought anything.

 Her fingers automatically typed in the combination to unlock the front gate. She waited a few seconds before she opened the front door, then signed the signature pad and was a little grateful when the man helped her move the giant box into the house. After that he quickly left and Sunny stood there with the heavy box next to her. Finally she could read who had sent this, and sighed in relief when she noticed that Doktor had sent it. So this was the prototype he had talked about. Various warnings were plastered on the cardboard and she took a few seconds to inspect them all.

“Fragile, do not throw, this side up, do not stack…” She frowned. What in the world would be this large and still be fragile? Curiously she walked around the box a few times, then pushed it into the open space that divided living room and kitchen.

She heard a door shut upstairs as she went into the kitchen to get a knife. “Morning!” She yelled so Wolf could hear her.

“Good morning.” He replied silently when he appeared in the kitchen.

“The prototype came in.” Sunny grinned, suddenly filled with excitement.

Wolf eyed the box for a second, then walked around it to inspect it. “It is rather big.”

“I really wonder what it is… Maybe an upgrade? A bigger version?”

“I am quite content with what I have at the moment.”

“Come on it will only be for a few days. Like the toy-dog, just switching the chip. No harm done.”

Wolf carefully took the knife from Sunny’s hands and began to cut apart the tape. Sunny couldn’t help but be impressed at how skilled he moved with the knife. She had seen it tons of times and yet it still surprised her.

Once the tape was cut, Sunny parted the lid and was presented with a copious amount of bubble wrap. “Wow, that’s even more than last time.” She commented as she tried to look through it and chuckled when Wolf peeked into the box as well.

“You’re curious after all.” She teased him and began to rip apart the bubble wrap to get to whatever was hidden inside.

Once she was through the first few layers, something rather pale showed up. “Well this doesn’t look like a bigger body.” Sunny frowned and grabbed the knife to carefully cut apart the rest of the wrap and almost dropped the knife when she saw what this prototype was.

“…You’re so going to hate this…” Sunny whispered, put the knife aside and parted the bubble wrap to reveal a very lifelike face.

“I do not understand.” Wolf replied when he looked at what Sunny was showing him.

The young woman cut open the sides of the box and ripped away the rest of the wrap. A white box tumbled out. A letter was attached to it. She opened the letter and skimmed over it, then shook her head with a smile. “You’re going to test this.”

Sunny gestured to the body, eyed it for a moment, almost mesmerized. The black hair looked so natural, the face so soft. She almost forgot that this was not a person lying there.

“This?” Wolf echoed in disbelief.

“Yup.” Sunny nodded eagerly. “An android body. Dok said he’s already adjusted everything, so you just have to get in there.”

“Sunny… This is not a canine body.”

Sunny sighed and handed the letter to Wolf. As with any text, he had read it in seconds and processed it just as fast. “Capable of all basic human functions.” He told Sunny. “What does that mean?”

“Why don’t we find out?” She encouraged, barely able to hide how excited she was to try it out.

Wolf looked at her for a second, then replied to her, “I do not have a choice, anyway.”

“Hey, it’s for a good thing. If this works out cyborgs may have it easier in the future!”

Wolf nodded halfheartedly, obviously not too eager to agree to this. “It has billions of sensors that I do not possess.” He reminded her. “It will likely overload my ability to process. I am unsure if I can adjust to that or not.”

“We’ll never know if we don’t try.” Sunny said as she stood and grabbed her laptops and a few USB-cables.

When she settled back down, Wolf walked over to her and lay flat on the ground. “I want you to know that I do not like this.”

“Are you scared?” Sunny asked, genuine concern in her voice. She placed a hand on his head, ran her thumb over the metal plating.

“I do not know what will happen. It is concerning.”

“I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. Promise.” She showed him the USB-cords she had brought to monitor the condition of the android body and Wolf himself, then she grabbed the letter again and bit her lip.

“He says ‘download’ … You’ll be going in without the chip…”

“It would appear so.” Wolf rumbled. “Transferring my data from one location to another is very difficult. This may be irreversible…”

Sunny’s frown deepened. “Come on, Dok must have had some thoughts on that. He doesn’t do things half heartedly.”

“He is, however, a scientist.” Wolf complained.

Sunny chewed on her lip, suddenly unsure. “Let me read this again.”

The letter held instructions and various information about the body. There was no word on risks or possible malfunctions. Sunny opened the white box, found a sheet of paper inside. “Aha!” She exclaimed and took the paper into her hands.

She quickly noticed that it held information for Wolf and how to proceed with the transfer to minimize damage to the AI and the body.

“It seems pretty safe.” Sunny told Wolf after reading through it multiple times.

Wolf snatched the paper out of her hands and read it himself, “I trust you.” Wolf told her. “Although, I am still concerned. A direct transfer cannot be stopped without damage.”

“I know…” Sunny sighed deeply and leaned over the android body to inspect it. As stated in the letter, two USB ports were hidden underneath the artificial Skin behind the left ear. They were hidden from view unless opened, sealed seamlessly when closed and were waterproof.

The rest of the body looked so human that it could have fooled her. It was a bit on the pale side, but the details on the skin where almost indistinguishable from a human body. “He really went all out on this.” Sunny commented in awe. She had never seen such delicate work on what was essentially a robot.

Companies that outfitted Cyborgs had a huge market on making artificial skin look as realistic as possible, even with fake veins showing. Yet, never before she had seen something so delicate in a robotic body. Not even holographs were this detailed.

“Wolf, if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to.” Sunny told him when she turned to look at him. “You know best what’s too risky and what’s not.”

Instead of answering her he only said, “We should start.”

Sunny couldn’t help but think that Wolf only agreed because Doktor wanted the data, but she nodded quickly before he could think about it again and opened the USB ports of the body. She connected both cables, plugged one into her laptop and hesitated with the other. “Wolf, if there is anything that looks off to you, stop it immediately.”

“Of course.”

Sunny nodded to herself, ran a hand down Wolf’s neck to find the small hatch that hid USB-ports, opened it and connected the cable. “Okay. Ready.” She told him.

“I will need time to get used to the new system. I may not be able to communicate with you for several hours.” He explained.

“I keep the laptop connected… sound an alarm if you need help with anything…”

“Understood. Starting data transfer in 5-4-3-2-1…”

When Wolf’s body went limp as he retreated from the functions, Sunny felt a cold shiver race down her spine. Testing prototypes was nothing unusual. They did it all the time, but this time it felt different. Would things be routine this time too?

She decided it was no use to sit there and watch, there was nothing to see anyway. Silently she got up and walked into the kitchen, brewed herself some tea and leaned against the counter to gaze at the limp form of the android body.

After a while without any visible changes she sat down at the unused laptop and started it up to work on John’s AI. It would be a joke if she couldn’t pull this off, and surely after almost an hour of reading through game coding, she had a basic understanding of what to do. A lot of times people had raised their eyebrows at her ability to learn anything in mere hours. It was all she had ever known, nothing she ever found unusual until it had been pointed out to her.

Wolf had been impressed by it, asked questions and even asked her to teach him things. She had taught him how to code, how to use pencils and so many other things, she barely even remembered. Most of them were so normal now, she didn’t think about them anymore. Two hours later she had written a simple AI that responded to questions by looking through Google. She deemed that good enough to showcase it and set aside the laptop.

Wolf still hadn’t moved and nothing had appeared on her laptop. She wasn’t sure if things were going the way they were supposed to, but the limited access to the data of the body told her that something was going on at least.

She watched the body for a few minutes, then sighed and turned back to the white box. She hadn’t looked through all of what was inside. She found a blueprint, then information on how to maintain the body. After skimming that, she was suddenly excited. The basic human functions that were mentioned included breathing, the need of sleep, a need for nutrition, a realistic depiction of all senses and the need to use the bathroom. Apparently the artificial skin was outfitted with a completely new and untested set of sensors and was able to heal itself. She couldn’t help but smirk, wondered if Wolf would like that change or not.

The blueprint told Sunny that the body was built like a human body, with artificial organs that functioned in a very similar way to a human. She couldn’t help but feel impressed at the work. Doktor had outdone himself with this. And they were allowed to test it! The body itself worked almost completely like a human body. She knew that would be difficult to get used to, for both her and Wolf.

 After she had read all the papers she focused on the box again and found a plastic bag with clothing inside. She opened it and pulled out a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and pants. All of them were black, nothing printed on. The body was roughly the same size as her, so finding clothing that fit him was not much of an issue.

She dressed the body in shorts and pants, left the shirt alone; it was better not to move the cables around. Once that was done she sighed. Almost four hours had passed, but nothing had happened. She wasn’t sure if Wolf had already transferred all his data and all she could do was wait. It was about to drive her mad.

To distract herself she headed back to the kitchen, got herself another tea and fixed something to eat. It wasn’t the healthiest of breakfasts, but she was too distracted to pay attention. When she decided to take a shower and was half way to the bathroom, an alarm sounded.

Sunny darted down the stairs and was back at her laptop in seconds. She expected something bad to show up, but all it said was, ‘Transfer complete. You can disconnect the canine body.’

Sunny breathed a sigh of relief and disconnected the canine body from the android. Then another message appeared on the screen. ‘Please boot the body.’

Even though it was just text, Sunny thought it had some urgency to it. Wolf hated being cut off from sensory input. He hated it so much, at some nights he would leave lights on.

She pulled the blueprint close to look at how to boot the body once more. It required the simultaneous push of three buttons hidden in the chest area. It took her a moment to find all three, then she pressed down on them as hard as she could. She felt them lock in place and a short but violent twitch ran through the body.

Sunny inched away in surprise, then watched in slight horror when absolute gibberish appeared on her laptop.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Sunny frantically looked at her laptop and back to the body, unsure of what was going on. The body had taken over of the functions it needed to, it was working the way it should; she could see that on her laptop. But Sunny couldn’t help but think that Wolf was so confused by it that he didn’t know what to do.

“Wolf…?” Sunny asked. She eyed the body, then back to the laptop. There was no response and she chewed on her lip. Had it been a good idea to do this? She worried that they hadn’t thought about this long enough.

All other prototypes they had tested were functional and rather fun. It never took long for them to complete the experiments. Now something told Sunny that this would take a lot longer than anticipated.

She never realized her hands were shaking until she turned to the other laptop to begin the log she wrote for all prototypes. Doktor liked that, so she had always written them as detailed as she could. Now there was a lot to write down, and a lot going on. At least on the laptop connected to the body. She could see numbers racing past, lines of text and code. She was almost certain that Wolf was doing this, and he was trying hard to find something.

The body was lying still until now, and she jumped when it suddenly twitched. The breathing picked up, something that would have amazed her if she hadn’t been so worried. This body was acting like a human body, there was no visible difference. It was both amazing and terrifying at the same time.

Something akin to a wheeze escaped over the lips and Sunny’s insides twisted. This couldn’t be good. She leaned in, placed a hand on the shoulder. The body trembled under her hand, face twisted in pain. It moved, but in no general direction.

“Wolf!” she almost yelled, hoped it would get his attention if he could even hear her. “You need to calm down.”

If he had heard her, her words had no effect. The body continued to shake and twitch as if Wolf was trying to get it to move but failed. When his right arm almost knocked over her laptop the sinking weight in her stomach turned into fear. What if he couldn’t control it? Was it a malfunction? Had he been damaged?

There was nothing she could do other than sit there and watch. But even as seconds turned into minutes, nothing changed. The breathing pattern was erratic, the movement uncontrolled and without sense. Her eyes darted to her cell-phone on her desk. Was it a good idea to bother Doktor?

What had they done? What was happening to her best friend? For a short moment Sunny forgot that this was not a human body, it was too life like to think of it as an android.

And it pained her. It hurt to see this, her best friend who had known nothing but the canine body for thirteen years. The sensors must have overwhelmed him and he was fighting to process all the data that was flooding him. He couldn’t cope with it.

He had even warned her of that. He knew it would happen, and he still went through with it. Sunny couldn’t tell if that was idiotic or brave. But now she couldn’t do anything for him. She couldn’t help him process this; he had to do it on his own or he would give in to the flood of data and cease to function. If there was helping him if that happened, Sunny had no idea.

Sunny retreated, but grasped the hand that had almost knocked over the laptop. Instantly it clamped around her hand, held it tightly. Only then she realized she was on the verge of tears. She felt guilty and like she had let him down. It was supposed to be just a test. Would Wolf even be able to get used to this?

Sunny began to type her report on what was happening with her free hand. It trembled so much she barely managed to hit the right keys. She couldn’t focus and after a few minutes she gave up. Once things cleared up, then she could write it. Now she had to help Wolf in any way she could. She figured that any more sensory input would have the opposite effect of what she was trying to achieve, so she ordered the AI hidden in the house to shut the blinds and to turn off the lights.

The only light now were her two laptops and she let go of the breath she had been holding when the body slowly began to take more regular and deep breaths. Sunny wasn’t sure if that was even necessary to keep the body running or if it was for show, but she didn’t want to test it.

 She also wasn’t sure if the lights had done it but was relieved that Wolf finally calmed down. Sunny noticed a thin layer of sweat on his face and upper body, and stared at it in surprise. Again she was about to forget that this was not a human body.

Now that the body lay still, Sunny’s curiosity returned. In the dim light she could see that he tried to open the eyes. It seemed to take great effort, and it took him several minutes to achieve the wanted result. When they eventually opened they stared at the ceiling, unfocused and unmoving.

“I turned off the lights, thought that would make it easier.” Sunny explained, unsure of he could hear her.

The eyes darted in her direction, telling her that he was able to hear her after all. She let go of the breath she didn’t realize she was holding

“Can you move?”

Sunny waited patiently until the head moved from side to side, almost as if shaking it. “Don’t say no, you clearly just moved.” Sunny teased.

Sunny watched as the face twisted again, the mouth opened. He was obviously trying to speak, but it looked like he was choking on the words rather than actually speaking. There was a short tone that escaped. It was enough for Sunny to know that he was able to access it, but Wolf seemed frustrated.

 “You’ll get the hang of it.” She encouraged him, then took her hand off his shoulder and gaped in surprise when goose bumps appeared on the synthetic skin. This could be revolutionary. It had to cost millions, and they were allowed to test it. Was it because Doktor trusted them? Or because there was no one willing to test it? Or maybe because Wolf was the perfect being to test it on?

When Wolf turned to the side and the USB cord slipped out of the laptop at the movement, Sunny winced. He suddenly looked utterly terrified.

“It’s okay-“ She reassured him. “The cable slipped out.”

He stared at her, eyes following her every move, almost as if he didn’t trust her at all. “I’ll put it back in a second-“She told him, grabbed the black t-shirt and held it out to him. “You’ll get cold.” She explained, watched as the eyebrows curled in confusion.

It took a few seconds until he realized what she meant, but his attempts at getting up were fruitless and Sunny sighed. “It’s that much different?”

He nodded, tried to force words once more. This time he succeeded. “Y-yes.” He seemed surprised at the voice. It didn’t hold any of the metallic undertone it usually had, but it was unmistakably his voice. Had Doktor actually put effort into replicating it? Had he planned this all along? Sunny smiled at Wolf, put the shirt aside and gently took both of his upper arms to pull him into a sitting position. He was about to fall back when Sunny let go of him, but involuntary moved his arms to support himself.

“See, you’re getting it.” She smiled, then held out the shirt to him again, ending up helping him putting it on. Once she was done she looked at him, his rather unnatural and stiff posture, the confused gaze and his eyes. She hadn’t noticed it when he had been lying down, but now that the light was hitting him directly, she could see that the gray eyes were actually silver.

“S-Sunny…?”

“All good. Just admiring the work.” She reached out, brushed the strands of black hair out of his face and nodded to herself.

“U-Understood.” Wolf replied, then slowly moved one arm to the USB port behind his ear to remove the cable. “I… suppose-“ He began, voice slow, somewhat slurred. “We do not need to monitor the Body.” Every word was slow, measured out carefully. He seemed to have trouble speaking, but he was getting used to it.

“Probably not. But-“ Sunny grabbed a protector for the USB cable and moved it around his wrist, almost like a bracelet. She closed the protector and looked at Wolf again. “We’ll keep  the cable handy. This is a prototype after all.”

“Yes.”

Sunny had expected more of a response, but she gave him some freedom. He was getting used to a completely different system, his mind probably preoccupied by a lot of things. She could imagine very well that he was focusing on various processes at the same time and that it affected his ability to respond.

“The body will work extremely similar to a human body.” Sunny told him once more as she reached to his ear to seal the port back into place. “I know that isn’t telling you much, you have no idea how that works, but if anything seems strange to you, just tell me. We’ll work it out. Okay?”

Sunny watched in amazement as his lips curled upwards into a tiny smirk. “You know how good I am at telling you when something is wrong.”

She snarled in feigned anger and lightly pushed his shoulder, caused him to lose balance and crash back into the bubble wrap. Various bubbles popped on impact and Sunny felt guilty. “Sorry!” she quickly apologized.

A small chuckle escaped Wolf, but he made no attempt to get up. “It would be strange if you started to treat me with kid gloves. You have never done that.”

Sunny hung her shoulders with another sigh. “I need to get used to this too…” She explained.

“Is it that different?” Wolf asked, still lying there limply and eyes focused on the ceiling.

“Yup.” Sunny admitted. “I know it’s you and all… but seeing you like this is surprising.”

“Is it bad?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

Instead of replying, Wolf changed the topic, “The ceiling needs to be cleaned.”

“What?” Surprised she  looked up, noticed spider webs high up and sighed. “Later.”

Wolf only nodded, watched as Sunny rolled him off the bubble wrap and packed everything together to throw out later. Wolf was now face down on the concrete floor and still made no attempt to move.

“You okay?” Sunny asked when she pushed the trash aside and eyed him carefully.

“The sensation is interesting.” Wolf told her.

“It’s hard and cold. That can’t be comfortable.”

“But it is interesting. I have never experienced this before.”

“I thought you had sensors-“

Wolf nodded, looked at her when she sat down next to him. “Sensory input to be aware of my surroundings. It was not as detailed or informative.”

Sunny raised her eyebrows, then turned back to her laptop. “You should write your own version of that report.” She suggested. “Dok’s going to love this.”

“I suppose he will.” Wolf muttered. He wasn’t moving much, but he had definitely gotten the hang of how to use the voice.

A few seconds of silence passed between them, then a notification broke it. Sunny looked at her laptops, noticed a new E-mail and opened it. It was from the business that had contacted her earlier, had a file attached.

She frowned and opened the mail. It was brief, told her to look at the picture and think up her own opinion on it. Her eyes moved to the sender. It was the same E-mail as last time. But before she opened it, she tried to trace it. It didn’t end up somewhere in Asia, like mails like these usually would. The grammar was also way too accurate. This wasn’t spam.

‘cc@mc.ru’ Sunny couldn’t make sense of it, frowned.

She scanned the mail for viruses, but it didn’t turn up anything. Contrary to what she thought, the file did not hold a virus, but something that surprised her more than any virus ever could.

It was a picture, obviously taken by security cameras. The picture showed a man, tall, blonde, dressed in casual clothing. It wasn’t too unusual. Until Sunny saw the face. The man wasn’t looking at the camera, unaware of its presence. But she could clearly see his blue eyes and the light blond hair. For a second she thought it was John, then her mind registered who it actually was. She held her breath and grabbed her phone.

She deleted the mail and closed her laptop, then grabbed her phone. “I need to make a quick phone call, someone has issues with a part. I’ll be back in a minute.” She told Wolf.

It took great effort not to run into the backyard. This had happened almost exactly two years before as well. She had lived in a different house at that time. All the time she had kept it a secret. No one knew about it, not even Wolf.

Once she had reached the backyard she closed the sliding door and called the person who had solved that issue before.

It took mere seconds for the person to pick up. “Issues, menina?” an accented voice teased.

Sunny had never met the man in person, but he had helped last time and seemed quite reliable. He most likely knew what she was talking about so she got right to the point. “They found him again, I was just contacted by someone.” She hissed. “If you don’t protect him-“

“You’ll slice my ass into cubes and feed it to the stray dogs.” The man replied silently. “You made that very clear last time.”

Sunny shivered. How could this man be so calm? “This needs to be kept a secret!” She reminded him forcefully; not just to keep Wolf out of it, but also so Hal wouldn’t get wind of it. Over the years Philanthropy had become its own small organization. Hal was mostly a member on paper, but they still helped where they could and Sunny was very sure that Hal would not leave things alone if he learned that Jack was very much alive and quite well.

He had had a good reason to fake his death. Sunny would never doubt that. She had been mad after finding it out, but she understood. Now she needed him to be safe again.

“I know. I’ll take care of it, menina. You stay safe too.”

“Of course.”

She ended the call quickly and lingered in the backyard for a few seconds longer. Two years ago they had done the same thing. Would it work out this time too? “This idiot keeps getting in trouble.” She muttered to herself.

It was quite cool outside, winter just around the corner. She used the soft breeze to calm her strained nerves. What had happened in the past hours was not exactly pleasant and now she was reminded of that secret she had kept from Wolf for so long.  She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. Silently she headed back inside, comforted by the warmth of the house.

She looked around the room, not surprised that nothing had changed. Still, right now she wished things were different. Back to her childhood, when everyone was still there. When John was still playing with her every other day. When they had lived in the same country. Now thousands of miles separated them and often times she really wanted to pack things and just visit him.

And she missed Jack. Four years ago when Rose had called her with the dreadful news, Sunny had broken down. Her world had been shattered with a single sentence. Two years ago, that world had been partially rebuilt. But Jack had no idea that she knew and it was better to stay out of his life.

It hurt. She had regarded him as something close to a bigger brother. Her glance wandered to Wolf. The Ai had been extremely distraught when he had heard the news back then. For days he hadn’t spoken unless he was directly addressed. That was the first time Sunny realized that Wolf was able to feel more complex emotion than he wanted to admit, and she was sure that, if he had physically been capable of doing so, he would have cried. Nobody should ever know about Jack, not even her best friend. It was the only secret she kept, but it was so big that she had already made attempts to tell him, only to chicken out at the last second and say something else.

With a small sigh she settled down next to Wolf and forced herself to think about the issue at hand. Something about that mail should have given her a clue on who had sent it. She just knew, but her informant would help Jack. Now Wolf was important. She closed her eyes for a second to calm down and turned her attention back to Wolf.

The Ai still lay sprawled on the floor and hadn’t made any attempt to move. “You can’t lie on the floor all day.” She told Wolf, was slightly frustrated that he still hadn’t tried to change his position.

“I have lost control over various processes.” He explained.

“What do you mean?”

“The system is designed in a different way. Movement came natural in the canine body. I still have to get used to this system.”

“You mean you have to consciously think about every movement?” Sunny asked.

He nodded. “It is difficult to stay focused on all of them at the same time. Some movement seems to happen involuntarily.” Wolf explained. “I will eventually get used to it.”

Sunny chewed on her lip, unsure. If Wolf had this much difficulty with the movement, it seemed like a bad idea to continue this. Still, that was valuable info and she wrote it into the log. Everything to help Dok make improvements on a later model.

“Then try to sit up and get off this floor. I’m getting cold just looking at you.” As if to emphasize it, a cold shiver ran down her spine at that.

Instead of answering Wolf moved the arms slowly, almost looked drunk when he used them to push himself off the ground into a sitting position. Sunny was too amazed to realize how much time it took until he had achieved results. Once done, Wolf sat completely still, silver eyes focused on her.

“You okay?” She asked, concern in her voice.

“I have to process more than I am used to. It is challenging.” Wolf admitted.

Sunny winced. It wasn’t a good idea to force processors to take on more than they could, but would Wolf be able to adapt to it or be overwhelmed? The only way to find that out was to let him do it. “If it gets too much, stop it. I don’t want you to get damaged.”

“Understood.”

Sunny flashed him a sad smile, was about to get up when Wolf spoke to her again, “Sunny?”

“Yeah?”

“It is strange to be in a different system.”

“How so?”

Suddenly he seemed shy, averted his gaze before he replied. “The chip is my home, in a way. I moved without it. The environment is completely different.”

“You mean like moving houses?” Sunny tried to understand. They had moved a few times, he was very familiar with that process. She thought it was a good way to explain what she was thinking.

“This system is very spacious. The further I spread into it, the more confusing it gets.” He explained. “I was used to access everything from the chip, now I have to physically move to the area to access it.”

“Wait-“ Sunny interrupted, unsure if she was understanding it correctly. “You can move around... in there?”

“It would be best described as a maze. I am finding my way through new paths that I have never seen before. I am unsure of where they will lead me.”

“Would a circuit map help?” Sunny quickly asked, “I can ask Dok to send us one-“

“That would be helpful.”

Sunny turned to her laptop, opened and quickly wrote her question to Doktor. While she was typing it, new questions formed in her head.

“So you went all haywire because the system overwhelmed you?”

“Yes and no.” Wolf turned towards the coffee table behind him, carefully grasped a pen and a post-it note. “I was confused and overwhelmed, yes.” He explained as he scrawled onto the yellow piece of paper, “but my whole being was being pulled into the system when the body was booted…” He paused, showed Sunny the paper.

It showed two systems, one confined in a chip, the other spread apart.

“I…” Wolf was looking for words now. Sunny frowned at that. The only time wolf ever was struggling for words what when he had to admit something he didn’t want to.

“I was unsure what was happening to me. It was as if something pulled me apart.” He didn’t know where to look at, avoided her gaze.

“And that scared you.” Sunny concluded.

Wolf didn’t move for a few seconds before he eventually nodded. “I forcefully had to retreat from all non-automated functions. I have also disabled various sensors.”

Sunny sighed deeply and wrote into the log before she moved closer to her friend. “So you saw the new system, decided it was too big and then blocked what you couldn’t process?”

“That is correct.”

“You’re aware you have to eventually activate them to test this properly, right?”

Another nod was the only answer Sunny got. 

She sighed and wrapped her arms around him. It was strange, unusual. Hugging Wolf had never been a very comforting experience. Now the soft material that mocked human anatomy made her realize that she really just wanted to hug Wolf without being aware of metal spikes and plates. He smelled of freshly pressed clothing and vinyl, the soft her tickling her cheek. He was warm, like a real human. His breath brushed over her hair and she could hear the heart hidden inside the body. It was a sound so human, sunny held her breath to focus on it. She jumped slightly when his arms moved around her; slow and heavy but very careful. He made an effort not to hug her too tightly.

“Wolf?” She asked in confusion, voice muffled by his t-shirt as she was pulled closer. His heartbeat had picked up and Sunny was not sure why.

“I apologize-“ His voice was silent, trembling. When sunny pulled away she gaped at the tears in his eyes. That wasn’t what she had expected.

Concern spread through him. Why was he crying? “You okay?”

He nodded, but his expression told her otherwise. Tears were trickling down his cheeks, disappeared in the dark fabric of his pants. “I cannot stop this-“ He complained, tried to stop the flood of tears with his hands. “Why is this happening?”

Sunny wasn’t entirely sure, but had a good idea. “Maybe the system picked up on your emotions.”

He froze, stared at her. Silver eyes seemed to glow against the flood of tears. Sunny  

Sunny’s lips curled back into the small smile. “No more hiding them from me.” She teased.

“This is unpleasant.” He complained, eventually used the shirt to wipe the tears off his face.

The young woman could only shrug. “You focus on getting used to this and activating sensors, okay?”

“Understood.” Wolf replied almost instantly, then gestured to the canine body still lying in the middle of the room. “What will we do about this?”

“Leave it there. I can’t carry it.” Sunny told him. “And dragging it will scratch the floor.”

“We did not think this through.” Wolf admitted with a small smirk.

Sunny smiled contently. Facial expression seemed to be involuntarily. It just happened. She enjoyed that, it was a nice new view on her friend. “We really didn’t.” She laughed.

The moment was short-lived. Wolfs expression fell as fast as it came and now he was staring at her again, unmoving and extremely focused on something that wasn’t there.

“Wolf?”

“Processing.” Was all he told her and she hung her shoulders. If that happened all the time, this body would be more of a hindrance than a fun test-ride. She crouched down in front of him and stared back.

Several minutes passed until Wolf squinted at her. “I apologize.” He muttered silently.

“Did you have trouble like this too when you were put into the canine body?” She asked, curiosity taking over.

“To a point.” He admitted. “I was brought _to life_ in the chip. I was fed knowledge and was trained. It took about a month until I was provided with a body. I had to learn how to move. It was difficult and confusing at first.”

Sunny was relieved now that she heard his words. He would get used to the new body. She didn’t know how long that would take, but she was confident that Wolf would be able to do it.

“This system is quite overwhelming. I will try my best to get used to it.”

“Don’t fry your brain.” Sunny teased, and chuckled when he flashed her a small smile. Again she almost forgot that this was Wolf. The friend she knew for ten years, someone she had never seen in another form than the canine body. Until now.

“I cannot guarantee that I will not be overwhelmed when I access all functions, however-“

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained, huh?” Sunny finished for him.

He nodded once, then surprised Sunny as he attempted to get to his feet.

“You sure you wanna try this?” She asked, ready to catch him should he lose balance.

“Affirmative.”

Sunny raised her eyebrows and sighed, watched as he struggled to force the legs to support his weight. He grasped the couch, movement slow and sluggish. Sunny automatically placed a hand onto his back to keep him from falling backwards.

She didn’t try to stop him, knew too well that he was as stubborn as she was and just let him do it.

Another few minutes later, Wolf was standing on two legs, firmly grasped the backrest of the couch and Sunny’s arm. She could see the strain in his face, mixed with curiosity and determination.

“How is it?” She asked.

He needed a long moment to reply to her. Sunny was not sure if he didn’t know what to say of if he had trouble to access the needed systems. “Unusual. The center of gravity is shifted.” He explained.

Sunny lifted an eyebrow, not quite understanding what that meant for him. He let go of her arm, held the pose for two seconds, then the knees buckled and he want down hard on the concrete floor. Sunny managed to grasp his shirt so he wouldn’t hit his head. The suppressed hiss told her that he had been hurt anyway. Biting her lip she crouched down, ran a hand over his back.

“We should start small.” She suggested calmly, saw him nod and hang his shoulders. Was he disappointed?

“I dislike this.” Wolf muttered almost shyly.

Sunny sighed, moved strands of black hair out of his face. He looked so desperate and disappointed, she wanted it to stop.

“Wanna abort this and try again tomorrow?” She suggested after a few seconds. She just couldn’t take seeing her friend like this.

He met her gaze, nodded once. “I apologize.”

Sunny shook her head. “We kind of jumped into it unprepared. It’ll be easier when we know what to expect.”

Instead of waiting for him to move she moved her arms under his and dragged him back to the canine body. Connecting the cables took less than a minute and she had enough time to grab a pillow and sit down on that while Wolf commanded the body to lie down.

It almost hurt her to watch it, it seemed so difficult und foreign to him, she regretted even trying this in the first place.

“Ready when you are.” Sunny told him as she connected the laptop to him, both to monitor the condition of him and of all other systems.

The body went limp rather fast, but then nothing happened. Nervously she checked the connections, but they were all working. What was going on?

As long minutes of deafening silence passed, Sunny’s thoughts made her hands shake. “Wolf?” She barely realized she had spoken, flinched when a twitch ran through the android body.

Silver eyes snapped open, wide, terrified. “I cannot leave-“His words were a whisper, she almost missed it.  “I am trapped-“ His voice shook, lip quivered, eyes full of panic.

“What?” She leaned in, one hand on the cable to check the connection again; the other supported her weight as she got closer to his face. “Calm down...” She tried, forced her voice to sound as level as possible.

Wolf was shaking, the body obviously moving without his command. He was terrified and Sunny quickly realized that it was not just a mere glitch. Wolf couldn’t establish a connection to the canine body or any other outside feed. It could have been a hardware error, maybe something had come lose.

“I’ll figure this out.” She promised, unsure if she could really find the issue, and if she did, if she could actually fix it.

She turned to the canine body, examined it closely, but even running diagnostics through it, didn’t turn up anything. Meanwhile Wolf was fighting against the rising panic. Sunny was too busy to think of a solution than to be amazed at how receptive the body was to emotion. Chances were that Wolf had always possessed these emotions and was just able to hide them better, due to the canine body not allowing detailed expression.

Meanwhile Wolf had turned to his side, curled up on himself almost in a fetal position. It came close to how he lay when he was in the canine body. Was it for comfort? He was terrified, it didn’t take a genius to tell, but what was she going to do about this?

Not willing to give up she grabbed her phone and called Doktor. The poor man had been woken up by his phone ringing, but Sunny barely even cared. When he finally picked up after the forth ring, Sunny was at a loss for words.

“I take it this is quite urgent?” Doktor’s words held an edge to them. Of course. She had just ripped him out of bed at 11 pm, a time the older man usually used to wind down and actually fall asleep.

“Wolf and I tried out the prototype-“ Sunny started, unsure how to word the issue. “He wanted to go back… but we can’t establish a connection, I have checked all ports and accesses, ran diagnostics and couldn’t turn up anything.” She explained quickly. Wolf looked paler now, eyes wide in fear, body shaking violently.

She ran a hand over his back, rubbed it gently in hopes it would at least calm him somewhat.

“I see.” Doktor muttered. “It might be an issue with the ports itself.”

Sunny nodded to herself. That was something she had thought about herself.

“The more likely situation however, is that he spread too far into the system and cannot gather all of his being to move.”

Sunny tensed, “What?!” she hissed, her voice harsh and angry. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Doktor cleaned his throat- Sunny could almost picture him adjusting his glasses as he did so. “That means that he this is irreversible. At least for the moment.”

“How do we fix this?!” Now she yelled. Wolf flinched under her hand and instantly she regretted that she snapped like that. The Ai was strained, facing limits he had never experienced before.

“At the moment there is nothing you can do.” Doktor told her calmly, unfazed by her outburst. “It might resolve itself in a few days time.”

Sunny hung her shoulders, panic and fear subsiding and living nothing but disappointment. Wolf didn’t do well with being confined anywhere. He had shown that on multiple occasions. “Fine.” She muttered silently. “Thanks anyway…”

“I apologize. I will work on a solution.”

After the call ended Sunny carelessly put her phone on the ground and turned to her friend. His gaze told her that he had heard a great portion of the call and she was unsure how to explain anything to him.

“…I believe I have to get used.” Wolf whispered. He sounded defeated and tired.

Sunny felt tears of frustration burn in her eyes. “I’m sorry…” Gently she rubbed his arm, ran her hand through his hair.  “We’ll figure this out, okay?”

He nodded, didn’t reply in words. He didn’t have to. His face told her all she needed to know when she removed the cables and set the laptops back to her desk. This began to annoy her.

“The body needs to be provided with nutrition and all that.” Sunny reminded her friend as she walked into the kitchen and will a glass with water. Was this going to work the way it was supposed to?

Would they run into more issues along the way? “We just have to be patient, okay?” Sunny sighed and crouched down in front of him. Slowly he sat up, able to do so faster, now that he had done it a few times. Maybe he would get used to it after all.

The glass almost slipped out of his grasp when he took it. He quickly adjusted his grip, mimicked the way Sunny would drink. He had seen it often enough to know how to do it. Still, the sensation of the cold glass and the unfamiliar liquid was almost overwhelming. It was nothing like the sensation of the floor. Swallowing it came automatically. He had to get used to the body just doing things automatically.

A human was used to that, but he preferred to be in control of or have access to all functions. Sunny watched him closely. Her dark eyes were concerned, curious, but deeply worried. It was nice to know that she cared so much about him. There hadn’t been many situations when she had openly showed this much concern. He barely remembered the last time.

“Too bad I ate all of the cake…” Sunny muttered when he sat down the glass. He didn’t let go of it, took in the cool material, traced the imprinted letters. He knew how easily glass shattered when handles carelessly, but he had never been able to feel the material before. It was smooth, cool, and it made an interesting sound when touched.

“I think you could use some cake right now.” Sunny was more talking to herself than to him, but he registered her words despite being distracted by the glass. His systems were stressed out; mind unable to cope with much at the moment. Something like this was a welcome distraction. It was calming, easing the stressed circuits. 

He realized he felt something pull him away from his visual feed. At first it was frightening, but when he was analyzing it, he found it rather comforting. He closed his eyes to process it without being distracted by the visual input. It was interesting, calming.

He never heard the glass shatter as his hand let of it, never felt himself hit the ground.


End file.
